


Kaleidoscope

by Sandyclaws68



Series: Making Moments Count [6]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Gen, M/M, Mild Language, a bit angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-09
Updated: 2015-06-09
Packaged: 2018-04-03 14:04:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4103604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandyclaws68/pseuds/Sandyclaws68
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Awakening the Mangekyo Sharingan comes with a price, but it's worth it in the end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kaleidoscope

Iruka ran a hand over the back of his neck, wincing at the sweat-soaked strands of hair he encountered. One of the downsides of teaching was that it meant doing a disproportionate amount of missions during the summer months, a fact that didn't really sit well with him. Iruka was not a fan of weather extremes, and today was surely the hottest day of the hottest summer in years.

This past mission he had done most of the traveling at night, trying to avoid the oppressive heat. That included last night; he had run full out from just after four o'clock the previous afternoon, taking only one break for about two hours of rest, so that he could get home a day earlier than expected. He had arrived not quite half-an-hour ago, turned in his mission report, and now had the rest of the day free to do as he wished.

Sleep. Sleep was definitely what he wished to do, but even more than that he wanted to cool off.

Which was why he was cutting across an open training field, under a blazing sun, during the hottest part of the day. This was the fastest way to get to Konoha's best swimming hole; a deep, cold-water spring tucked away in a secluded part of the forest. The best, and probably the most secret, swimming hole. In fact Iruka wasn't certain if anyone besides himself knew about it, which was fine with him.

He honestly didn't expect to see anyone out in the heat, so it came as quite a surprise when he looked up from the parched ground and spied a figure on the other side of the open field. Even from that distance there was no mistaking the lean form, slouched posture, and silver hair of Kakashi. Iruka grinned; missing Kakashi was the main reason he had rushed to get home early, and he certainly wasn't averse to having the other man's company for a swim.

He let his chakra spike, just for a moment, to get the other man's attention. It worked; he saw Kakashi's shoulders straighten and his head lift. And then he was turning around to face Iruka, pulling down his mask and smiling. Then, in the blink of an eye, he was right in front of the chuunin, taking hold of him and kissing him, long and slow.

“You're home early,” Kakashi said after the kiss broke.

It took Iruka a minute to straighten out his lust-addled brain enough to respond. “Mmhmmm. It was cooler to travel at night, so that kind of bumped the timetable a bit.” He nuzzled his face against Kakashi's neck, pressing his lips to the sweat-salty skin. Suddenly the heat didn't seem to be that much of a problem.

Kakashi chuckled, the low sound reverberating in Iruka's ear. “I guess you missed me,” he all but purred as he tilted his head back, encouraging further attentions to the skin of his neck.

Iruka nodded then pulled back, wanting another one of the jounin's specialty kisses, and that was when he noticed. He took a full step back, out of Kakashi's arms, but was still close enough to cradle the older man's face in his hand and hold him still.

“Kakashi, open your left eye.”

Kakashi squeezed both eyes shut before sighing. “I can't keep it open for long,” he said. “I'm not sure what the hell it does.” And then he opened both eyes and Iruka sucked in a breath.

He had grown accustomed to the Sharingan since their relationship had started, although if pressed he would admit that it disturbed him on some instinctual level. But this. . . This was an entirely different kettle of fish. What should have been the ordinary tomoe circling the pupil had grown larger, and lengthened, with a slight sickle-like curve at the end of each. It was like a pinwheel in appearance, although undoubtedly not that harmless in function. And that thought caused Iruka to reach out and place one hand over Kakashi's left eye, gently closing it. “So,” he said, trying to sound casual. “That's new.”

Kakashi laughed. “Yeah, unfortunately. The next stage in the Sharingan's evolution.”

Something else Kakashi had said suddenly clicked in Iruka's mind. “That's why you're out here, where you know no one else will be. Trying to figure out what power that new Sharingan has.”

The other man nodded. “I didn't want to work on it with anyone else around, just in case.”

“And you thought blind experimentation was the way to go?” Iruka asked, a hint of humor in his voice. “What have you been doing; staring at birds and waiting for something to happen?”

“More or less.”

Then Iruka did laugh as he shook his head. “You know, for a genius you're as dumb as a stump sometimes,” he said, giving one of Kakashi's hands a squeeze. “You could have done some research first, you know. The Hokage's library contains some scrolls salvaged from the Uchiha compound. They'd be worth a look, don't you think?”

“They would,” Kakashi agreed. “Except that access to those scrolls is restricted. Sandaime's orders.”

Iruka rolled his eyes and grinned “Dumb as a stump,” he muttered, not quite inaudibly. “You're probably the only person in Konoha to whom Tsunade-sama would grant _unlimited_ access to those materials!”

Understanding crossed Kakashi's face and his cheeks and ears turned pink. “I'm an idiot.”

Iruka raised his eyes to the sky. “I've been saying that for years!”

“Okay, okay, you've had you fun and I get your point,” Kakashi commented with a sideways glance at the younger man. “Would you help me look through everything?” he asked with a hopeful, little smile.

“Of course I would,” Iruka replied, looking fond. “But can it wait until tomorrow?” he yawned so wide Kakashi almost expected to hear his jaw crack. “I really need to get some sleep.”

“The apartment is in the other direction,” Kakashi said, helpfully pointing.

Iruka flushed. “I was on my way to the spring to cool off,” he said, a little embarrassed. “I, uh. . . I wouldn't mind some company.”

Kakashi's eyebrows shot up. “Skinny dipping, sensei? How scandalous.”

Iruka curled a hand in Kakashi's vest and pulled him close for a hot, messy kiss. “It had better be,” he whispered before walking away with a flounce of his ponytail.

There was no hesitation in Kakashi's step as he followed.

**************

“I think it's about time to call it a day.”

“Mmmm.”

Kakashi sighed and leaned back in his chair, scrubbing his face with both hands. It was sweltering hot in the Hokage's restricted archives and the Sharingan was throbbing dully in time with his pulse, creating an ache that spread outward throughout his head. They'd been at it since shortly after eight that morning (Iruka had simply scoffed at Kakashi's insistence that the butt-crack of dawn was not a suitable time to wake up) and it was now close to six in the evening. If he hadn't summoned Akino to fetch them some lunch a few hours ago (Iruka would have kept on working past the point of starvation) he would have passed out from hunger by now.

“Iruka.”

“Mmmm.”

He turned his head slightly to look at where Iruka sat on the floor, surrounded by scrolls and a handful of bound books, one of which looked as if it weighed as much as the chuunin did. There was a smear of dirt across his nose, what looked like a spiderweb stuck to his hitai-ate, and his ponytail was wilting in the heat. He was in his element, and Kakashi had to smile at it. It was either smile or kill the relentless bastard, and _that_ would put a definite cramp in his love life.

“Iruka,” he repeated, louder and sterner this time. When the younger man looked up at him he raised an eyebrow. “Home? Dinner?” he asked.

Iruka looked slightly confused. “In a minute,” he replied, looking back at the scroll on his lap. “I think I might have found something.”

Kakashi managed to prevent an eye roll, if only barely. But Iruka had been saying that for the last three hours, and nothing had panned out. And since most of the scrolls were in the arcane script that was a specialty of the Uchiha clan it needed a Sharingan to even attempt to decipher the words. Hence the headache. And he wasn't really interested in uncovering the damn thing to look at anything else.

But when he looked that way again Iruka was grinning at him. “I know what you're thinking,” the younger man said, gesturing for Kakashi to join him. “But this time it's the real thing, I promise.”

Kakashi stifled a groan as he rose to his feet and crossed the room. He dropped to the floor and stretched his legs out, pushing against the shelf opposite. He yawned once and then looked at Iruka. “All right, show me. But if this doesn't pan out I'm withholding sex for at least a week to punish you.”

Iruka snorted. “As if you could hold out for more than a day,” he muttered, sensing Kakashi's answering grin. “And it'll be worth it.” Then he turned the scroll that he had been holding so that the jounin could get a better look at it.

Kakashi sucked in a breath as his eye widened, his hands shaking slightly as he took the scroll from Iruka. Across the top was a series of five drawings, and under each a few sentences in the arcane script. But the drawings; the drawings were what caught his attention. Each one was a depiction of some variation of the Mangekyo Sharingan. And one of the drawings closely resembled the pinwheel form that had been appearing in his left eye.

He looked up and met Iruka's eyes. “How?”

Iruka laughed softly. “By patiently doing the necessary research,” he replied. “Good thing I was here; you would have given up hours ago and gone back to aimlessly staring on that training field.”

“In case I haven't mentioned it lately I love you a ridiculous amount.”

Iruka's smile was gentle as he leaned in and kissed the corner of Kakashi's mouth. “Read,” he said. “I've got something else I want to look into.” And he picked up the biggest of the books and half turned away from the older man.

Kakashi simply nodded as he pushed his hitai-ate up and focused the Sharingan on the scroll. He couldn't translate all of it (only one Sharingan was something of a disadvantage) but what he could decipher made for fascinating reading. He skimmed over the information about the Tsukuyomi – first hand experience with that was more than sufficient, thank you very much – and absorbed the information about other Mangekyo powers. He had to suppress an insane urge to shudder: some of those were disturbing, to say the least.

Then he turned his attention to the description underneath the drawing of “his” Mangekyo. He had grown more used to reading the script as the day had progressed and he easily picked out a few words: space-time, teleportation, dimension, intangible. Also “left” and “right”, which led him to realize that each eye had distinct powers, so he concentrated on what the scroll had to say about the left eye. He also pieced together the name of this newly revealed Doujutsu: Kamui.

Feeling excitement pool in his stomach he turned toward Iruka, wanting the younger man to join him as he learned. But something was wrong; Iruka still had the enormous book in his lap but his posture was no longer relaxed. In fact he look so stiff and rigid that a touch might have shattered him.

“Iruka?” Kakashi asked, reaching out and gently laying a hand on the other man's shoulder. “What's wrong?”

Iruka turned around to face Kakashi, his face white and stricken. The book thudded to the floor when he shifted, but Iruka barely noticed. The jounin took hold of the massive thing and quickly skimmed the page Iruka had been engrossed in, trying to ignore the way his heart clenched. The page contained a number of first-hand accounts from people close to Uchiha clan members, detailing a variety of atrocities committed in the quest to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan. He looked up to meet Iruka's eyes.

“I know,” the chuunin began, taking a shaky breath. “I know that the Sharingan is activated because of a strong emotional reaction, but this. . .” He gestured weakly to the book. “How could they? And for what?!”

Kakashi scrubbed his face with his hands and pulled his hitai-ate back over his left eye. He was unsure how to respond; his direct experience with the Uchiha was unusual, because Obito had been unusual compared to the rest of the clan. But that didn't mean he was unaware of some of the more unsavory aspects of the clan's history. “For some people everything is about power,” he spoke slowly, feeling his way cautiously through words. “Getting it, keeping it, or increasing it. People like that don't think twice about killing if it will benefit them.”

“But to kill someone who matters!” Iruka exclaimed, unshed tears making his eyes shine. “Someone who is precious to you!” He gasped suddenly and clapped a hand over his mouth. “You. . . You could never!”

Kakashi laughed, a hollow, mirthless sound. “I wish I could say _Of course not!_ But the truth is I don't really know how it happened. Tsunade-sama suspects that the Mangekyo awoke some time ago. Probably years, but that I've only just been able to access it because -”

“Because of what happened with Sasuke.”

Kakashi nodded. “That's the theory, at any rate.” He leaned back against the bookshelf, closing his normal eye and tapping where his hitai-ate covered the Sharingan. “The only person I've ever told the entire story of this to was my sensei,” he whispered, voice rough with emotion. “I'm the only person alive who knows all of it; the whole fucked up tale.” He glanced at Iruka out of the corner of his eye. “I may want to change that. If you think you can handle knowing.”

Iruka looked slightly uncertain, and more than a little worried, but his nod was firm. “It's a part of you, isn't it? Then I can handle it.”

**************

Hours later – the sun was setting and they didn't bother with any of the lights in the archives – Iruka sat in the growing darkness, trying to process everything he had been told. Kakashi lay with his head in the chuunin's lap, seemingly relaxed, but the unevenness of his breathing gave away his on-going agitation. He was terrified that Iruka would not understand, would see only the horror of what had happened, and blame him as surely as he blamed himself.

But then Iruka's hands came to rest on his head, fingers gently carding through the silver hair. “You didn't kill her, you know,” he whispered. Kakashi stiffened and would have sat up if Iruka hadn't firmly held him in place. “You didn't,” he repeated.

“The chidori hole in her chest would suggest otherwise, sensei.” Kakashi's voice was hoarse from all the talking he had done that day. And maybe from something else.

“Kakashi, look at me.”

He didn't sit up, just shifted until he was on his back so he could look up at Iruka. And what he saw made his heart throb in his chest and nearly stole his breath.

Iruka was smiling, the gentle, loving smile that was reserved for Kakashi's eyes alone. Kakashi opened his mouth to say something, but Iruka pressed one finger to the jounin's lips. “It's my turn to talk now,” he said quietly, sounding fondly exasperated. Then he took a deep breath and spoke, his brown eyes never breaking from Kakashi's grey one.

“You didn't kill her. It was her choice; the toughest choice any shinobi has to make. We all expect that at some point we'll be faced with the prospect of dying to protect our village, but how many of us would actually choose to do so? How many of us could make that choice with as much grace as she did? She was. . .” Iruka sucked in a breath and glanced up to keep the tears from falling. “She was incredibly brave. A true hero.”

Kakashi blinked rapidly, fighting back the tears he felt pooling in his own eye. Even so he could feel the moisture starting to leak from the Sharingan, and he smiled slightly to himself. _Obito always was more emotional_ , he thought. And then he shook his head slightly and reached up to cradle Iruka's face with one hand. He should have known better; Iruka always understood. “Thank you,” he said.

Iruka's smile widened slightly as he pressed his cheek into Kakashi's hand. “You're welcome,” he replied, using his thumb to wipe the tears from the older man's face.

“In case I haven't mentioned it lately. . .”

“I know. You love me a ridiculous amount.”

**************

The darkest hour of the night found Kakashi standing before the memorial stone, mask down and a smile on his face. “Rin, Obito, Sensei,” he began, feeling that smile grow. “I've found him. The one I never really knew I was looking for.” He reached out and trailed his fingertips across the cold granite. “I can't stay; I don't want him to wake up and wonder where I've gone. I just. . . I wanted you to know.”


End file.
